Mistress of Shadows
by wolfprincess18
Summary: Sarah Connor is a shapeshifter and a hardened criminal with a mysterious past. After being caught by the Magic Council the only way to avoid execution is to be picked up by a legal guild. In comes Time Song and Sarah is given another shot at life. But her past and her ties to illegal guilds aren't as neat as they seem. And a good criminal always has enemies...
1. The Girl Who Courted Death

"I'm not a monster," she said in a choked voice, "I'm not!"  
She stared into the cracked mirror. Her violet hair hung limply around her shoulders. A terrified brown eye stared into the glass. Tears shone on her red cheeks. With shaking her fingers, she pushed back her bangs, revealing an eyepatch, covering her right eye. She whimpered and untied the patch, letting it fall to the dirty floor. A blood red, crimson eye reflected in the mirror, stared back at her. She fell to the floor, clutching her eye.  
"I am a monster…" she said quietly, "That's all I'll ever be! A horrible monster"

"RUN! IT'S THE MAGIC COUNCIL!" someone yelled.  
Sarah's head whipped around. A dark army was approaching them. Her breath hitched and she transformed into a villager and ran like a bat out of hell. Her whole guild, Dark Angel, ran in separate directions. Sarah was fast and even though the council was chasing after her she had quite a lead on them. Grinning, she picked up speed.  
"Stop right there!" someone yelled.  
She kept on running, she was almost to her boat, safety, when she tripped. Over the undone shoelaces of the villager's shoe. She tumbled to the ground, her face full of mud, and tried to get up, but felt a sharp blade against her neck.  
"You, Sarah Connor, are under arrest," said one of the police coldly.  
She turned back into her normal form, her teeth bared, looking up into the face of her captor. Her crimson eye flashed with hatred.  
"I'll get you," she growled.  
"Not behind bars you won't."  
She fought bravely against her captors but in the end they had her restrained. She snarled like a feral beast, her inhuman eye bright. The captain of the squad stuck a needle into her arm, injecting a sleeping draught. Her eyelids drooped and she slumped to the floor, unconscious.  
When she opened her eyes, she was laying on a cold, stone floor, her hands cuffed behind her back.  
"LET ME GO!" she shouted.  
"Might want to save your voice," suggested one of the frog guards, "your trial is today."  
"How long have I been out?" she asked uncertainly.  
"About a week."  
Sarah swore loudly. A jailer came and grabbed her roughly under the armpits.  
"Hey! Watch where you touch me!" she spat.  
"You think I care, bitch?" he asked, "you're just a prisoner. You're not human anymore, so I couldn't care less where I touch you."  
She tensed, she hated men. They were all horrible and all the same. The only good man was a dead man she decided. Her jailer led her to the trial room where she was shoved roughly onto a platform.  
"Sarah Connor, you stand accused for the murder of one hundred and fifty-four people, the affiliation with an illegal guild, practicing a forbidden magic, and the instigation of the destruction of several towns."  
She looked up, a quiet determination. "I won't deny it. I did kill all those people. I am affiliated with an illegal guild and I did instigate the destruction of several towns, but I was born with the power to shape-shift. That's why I look like this," she said, pushing back her bangs, to reveal her abnormal right eye.  
There was a collective intake of breath.  
"You plead guilty, Miss Connor?" asked the judge shakily.  
"Yes."  
"I will now sentence you. You are to pay the penalty of death for your crimes. That is, unless a legal guild decides to pick you up, in which case you will pay for your crimes through the civil service of helping on the missions of a legal guild. If you do no less than twenty missions a month, we will take you back for an execution," said her judge.  
Her jailer grabbed her roughly again and dragged her back to her cell. He pushed her back in and locked the door behind her. Later that day, the people from the legal guilds came by, each one of their wizards goggling at her like an animal in the zoo. But none of them ended up deciding on picking her up. Not like she wanted to be affiliated with weaklings like them. One last guild came up, one called Time Song.  
A tall woman with long blonde hair walked up to the cell. "Hello Sarah, my name is Delva and I'm the master of the guild Time Song."  
She instantly transformed into her. "It's a pleasure to meet you," she said sarcastically.  
The guild master raised an eyebrow.  
"C'mon," said a girl with blue hair, "she's just a murderer. We don't have time for her."  
But the blonde seemed not to hear her. "So you are a shapeshifter. That's very interesting."  
"Most people scream and run."  
"I would imagine so."  
She turned back in to herself.  
"I think…I will test your abilities. Brooke, I would like you to fight Miss Connor, and if she does well enough, I will be more than happy to accept her as a part of the Time Song guild."  
"You can't be serious!" cried a pink-haired girl, "that girl has killed over a hundred people!"  
"We all deserve a second chance, Amone," said Delva calmly.  
She motioned for the jail keeper who let Sarah out of her cell. The guild of Time Song surrounded her and the girl named Brooke. The blue haired one who insulted her.  
"I request a weapon," said Sarah calmly.  
Delva handed her a sword. It would do. The convict brandished her new weapon, readying it. Brooke rolled her neck.  
"Ready?" she asked lazily.  
"I'm not responsible for your death," Sarah answered coldy.  
"I'll take that as a yes. WATER DRAGON ROAR!" she cried.  
A jet of water shot out and Sarah sidestepped it. Brooke furrowed her brow. Well, she couldn't expect her to go down easily, but she had hoped. The shifter walked forward calmly. The blue haired girl was slightly unnerved by her inhumanity. Sarah transformed into her adversary.  
"WATER DRAGON IRON FIST!" her enemy yelled, striking her hard in the stomach.  
Connor's face contorted with pain. She raised her sword and struck Brooke hard across the stomach with it. Red blood stained her dress. The dragon slayer, clutched her wound, hatred written across her face. She lifted the shifter up by her throat and squeezed hard.  
"Die bitch," she growled.


	2. Time Song

Sarah clutched at the water mage's hair, pulling it as hard as she could. While Brooke was distracted she stabbed her opponent hard as she could in the thigh. The slayer cried out, dropping her. The feral woman dropped back, horribly out of breath, rubbing her throat.  
"That's quite enough!" said Delva, stepping between the two of them.  
But it wasn't. They were both determined to oust the other. Permanently.  
The prisoner leapt at her foe. "Water dragon iron fist," Sarah breathed.  
"You can copy powers?!" gasped the pink haired girl who had insulted her.  
"Water dragon sword!" Brooke cried, a sword forming in her hand.  
Their blades clashed, both of them pushing against it as hard as they could.  
"LADIES, STOP," commanded Delva.  
Brooke lowered her sword slowly. Sarah kept it up for a minute before dropping it to the ground and turning back into herself.  
"Well, Miss Connor, you seem quite a capable fighter. It would be an honor to have you join us at Time Song," said the guild master.  
Her jaw dropped. "Are…are you serious? You're not…scared I'm gonna kill you in your sleep or something?"  
"If you try such thing, and trust me I will know, you will be thrown immediately back to the Magic Council."  
The shifter sighed. She was going to have to be a lot sneakier if she wanted to keep up her position as Mistress of the Shadows. Because there was no way in hell that she was going to give it up. Only cowards reformed. And beside the fact, she was evil.  
"Sounds fair enough," said Sarah with a wry smile.  
"Master, I beg you to reconsider that!" shouted Brooke and Amone.  
"My decision is final. You can worry less about my soundness of mind and more about welcoming our newest member."  
"I have some things in storage. Would you mind if I went and got them?" she asked kindly.  
The blonde nodded.  
"Mind if I use your teleporting device?" Sarah asked.  
"I will come with you."  
"As you wish."  
The mistress clicked on her teleporting device.  
"Black Heart," the murderer spoke clearly.  
The two of them disappeared.  
Everyone started talking at once.  
"Delva's gone mad!" cried Amone, wringing her hands.  
"I'm not gonna sleep ever again," sighed Brooke, bandaging her wounds.  
"That woman's not fit for a legal guild!" said a man named Chase.  
"She's going to kill us all," whispered Fell under his breath.  
The pair of mages returned shortly laden down with a few boxes and a very large trunk. It was then that they all returned to Time Song, and Sarah entered her first legal guild.  
"So this is what a legal guild looks like," she said in awe, looking around.  
"Do illegal guilds look different than this?" asked Brooke curiously.  
"There are more skulls and blood spattered on the walls."  
"How…interesting…"  
Delva turned to the new member. "You should get your tattoo, Sarah."  
She nodded gravely. Amone stepped up nervously. The shifter took off her shirt.  
"On my back," she demanded.  
Most of the men in the guild had volcanic nosebleeds at that time. She has no shame, thought the water dragon slayer.  
With shaking hands the cloud mage, applied the ink of the Time Song mark onto her back. Sarah looked down as her mark from her last guild disappeared in a flurry of shimmering light. Was it a solitary tear that ran down the shifter's cheek or simply a trick of the light?  
"Now that that's over with, Sarah you will be rooming with Miss Estrella."  
"But…she's going to kill me!" cried Brooke.  
"I wouldn't want to get my hands dirty with your murder anyway," Sarah spat.  
Brooke sneered.  
"Now you two need to get along," reprimanded Delva.  
The two mages walked up the stairs to one of the rooms. There were two beds on opposite sides of the room. Sarah slammed her boxes down.  
"Can I help you with anything?" asked Brooke, kicking open her trunk.  
"DON'T OPEN THAT!" cried Sarah.  
"Corpses…" shivered the water mage, "your trunk is full of corpses…"  
"Ex-boyfriends," said the convict slamming it shut.  
"You kill your ex-boyfriends?!"  
"Well I can't have them spreading around my secrets can I?"  
"You really are messed up aren't you?"  
"And proud of it."  
The violet haired girl sat down on her bed, looking out the window. She pulled her knees up to her chest and her roommate realized for the first time how alone she must be. She was isolated like an island in the middle of a stormy sea.  
"What's it like, Brooke? To have friends?"  
"To have friends? It's like you'll do anything to protect them. Even give your own life."  
***


End file.
